John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Cameron is probably not very familiar with dirt roads. He might have been out there once in his life many years ago, who knows?

We want our roads fixed, and it is going to cost money. We have already doubled the Roads to Recovery Program for 2015-16 for our local governments. It is a great program that was brought in many years ago. I commend those opposite for keeping it when they were in government. Thank goodness they did not wipe that out, or we would not have roads in the bush. We need this money to fix our roads. Out there, as Senator Cameron may not be aware, is where the cattle are carted to abattoirs; it is where wheat, cotton and those primary products are transported—many of them having to travel on rough, degraded dirt roads. Those roads need to be repaired. I look forward to every cent of the $2.2 billion over four years going into roads. That is most important. When that indexation legislation comes to this place within 12 months I hope that the Greens party, and Senator Rhiannon as well, support us on that legislation so that we in the country areas can have decent roads.

Senator Rhiannon interjecting—

We want to spend it on roads and we want to fix our roads.

Senator Rhiannon interjecting—

Public transport? We are already spending squillions on public transport in the cities. We want to spend the indexation funds on the roads to repair our roads. I know that in theory the Greens' policy is that they support increases in indexation. Please give it to some people out in the rural and regional areas to fix our roads, and then we can have safer roads, better roads so that the future generations can enjoy those better conditions that we so desperately need.